6,779 people (2024 Census estimate, +6.5% since 2020)
976 square miles of land · 7 people per square mile
“Highest” and “lowest” are just order, not grades: a high rank for poverty or hazard losses means more of it. Each figure's source is in its section below.
12 active community water systems list Bear Lake County in the area they serve, reporting 5,449 people served in all (a system that crosses county lines counts its whole population).
| MONTPELIER CITY OF groundwater · local government · ID6040021 | 2,772 served |
| PARIS CITY OF groundwater · local government · ID6040022 | 540 served |
| GEORGETOWN CITY OF groundwater · local government · ID6040013 | 476 served |
| FISH HAVEN PIPELINE COMPANY groundwater · private · ID6040011 | 400 served |
| BEAR LAKE WEST POA groundwater · private · ID6040044 | 300 served |
| BENNINGTON WATER SYSTEM groundwater · local government · ID6040006 | 250 served |
| BLOOMINGTON CITY OF groundwater · local government · ID6040007 | 206 served |
| ST CHARLES CITY OF groundwater · local government · ID6040024 | 191 served |
Source: U.S. EPA Safe Drinking Water Information System (SDWIS), active community systems, . Look up any system's violations and test results with EPA's search using its ID.
About 3 people were held in Bear Lake County's jail, in Vera's latest figure (2006), or 83 per 100,000 residents ages 15–64. In 2001 it was about 2.
Source: Vera Institute of Justice, Incarceration Trends (built from federal Bureau of Justice Statistics jail surveys). Counties without their own jail, or that share one, may show no figure.
1 school district has its office in Bear Lake County. School taxes are usually the largest part of a property tax bill.
Spent $13.9 million — $13.1 million to run schools, about $9,189 per student, plus $804,000 on buildings and equipment. Money in: $2.4 million local (mostly property tax), $11.1 million state, $2 million federal.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 Annual Survey of School System Finances. Districts are listed by the county of their main office; some serve neighboring counties too.
Source: County Health Rankings & Roadmaps 2025 (University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute), which gathers federal data (CDC, Census, and others); measures cover different recent years. Blank lines aren't reported for small counties.
Overall risk: Very Low compared with other U.S. counties. FEMA estimates natural hazards cost Bear Lake County about $4.9 million a year on average in buildings, crops and lives. Ability to bounce back (community resilience): Relatively Moderate; social vulnerability: Very Low.
Source: FEMA National Risk Index (December 2025), expected annual loss. Ratings compare counties nationwide; they're estimates, not predictions.
34 bridges in Bear Lake County: 14 in good condition, 20 fair, and 0 poor (0.0%). “Poor” means a main part — the deck, the beams, or the supports — is rated 4 or lower on the federal 0–9 scale. It doesn't mean unsafe to drive; unsafe bridges are closed.
Source: Federal Highway Administration, National Bridge Inventory (2025 submission). Includes state, county and city bridges.
Federal grants paid for $21.4 million of work in Bear Lake County in fiscal 2025, about $3,361 per resident — to the county, cities, schools, hospitals, nonprofits and others.
Source: USAspending.gov, grants by place of performance, fiscal 2025 (Oct. 2024 to Sept. 2025). Search it by county to see each award.
From Grants.gov: posted grants listing county governments as eligible, soonest deadline first; research-only and overseas programs left out; list updated 2026-10-13, refreshed weekly. 62 are open in all. Cities, towns, school districts and nonprofits have their own lists there.
Registration deadlines, early voting and polling places for Idaho are on the federal site vote.gov, which links to the state's official election office.
The budget, property tax rates, audits, local officials and offices for Bear Lake County come from the county's own records, which we haven't gathered — not gathered, never hidden. See what a full county site looks like, or ask to have Bear Lake County built: brayden.ozark@gmail.com.
More of Idaho: the state government and every county in Idaho.
Nearby counties: Franklin County (26 mi) · Lincoln County, WY (33 mi) · Caribou County (36 mi) · Cache County, UT (44 mi) · Rich County, UT (46 mi) · Bannock County (54 mi).